My friends in Redding and I had been wanting to take a trip to the “Big Apple,” or New York City, for a while now. It was originally just timing and money holding us back—buses are expensive!—so when we found out that the English Language Institute was sponsoring a bus ride there and back for only twenty dollars, we hopped on it. Continue reading
As I pulled myself out of bed at nine o’clock AM on a Saturday, I knew my roommate was asking herself the same thing I was: is this worth it? One look at the busy but adorable orchards we were visiting was all it took to know it was.
We met the Honors Planning Board in front of Perkins and piled fourteen people into three University of Delaware vans. We were off. It was a shorter drive than expected.
Milburn Orchards has a large wagon to transport you from the parking lot (I use that in the loosest sense of the word; it was a field) to their apple orchards. These were our first stop when we finally got there around ten thirty. They had three different kinds of apples to choose from. I stuck with my golden delicious, but my friends branched out a bit, plucking red delicious and mutsu off the trees, all of which are dwarfs, to make it easier for visitors to pick fruit.
The red delicious is known to be juicy but fairly tasteless, while the golden delicious is much sweeter. Personally, I like my fruit to be sweeter, which is why I stuck with the golden delicious. The mutsu, on the other hand, is also sweet, supposedly with a bit of spice. I had never tried that type before, so I didn’t get a lot of them. The one I’ve eaten did taste good, though.
Once we’d exhausted our apple-picking energy, we headed for the “Big Backyard,” otherwise known as the petting zoo, where they keep all the animals. Inside, we made a beeline for the baby goats.
As my friends and I squealed over the cuteness overload, a goose squawked because there were three geese in a pen on the other side of the baby goats. I have yet to figure out why. The brave people surrounding that pen probably appreciated their presence, though.
There were also pigs, rabbits, quail, a horse, a donkey, and a Scottish Highland cow. The minute my friend, Abbie, saw the horse, we lost her. Soon enough she was patiently teaching small children how to safely interact with the large animal while we joked that she should be getting paid. The parents surrounding us certainly thought she was.
Our next stop was the market, where the many local products Milburn carries are sold. It was almost entirely delicious-smelling food (especially pastries). There were even special apple cider donuts that they made right there in the store.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to try my apple cider donut due to a mishap while warming it up later that day. I won’t get into it now (I could have sworn the instructions said to warm it for one minute), but I was disappointed. My roommate thoroughly enjoyed hers and did not share. Portia (my roommate) is actually the one pictured above. I think her giant apple find clearly emphasizes the enjoyment we experienced throughout the trip.
I wouldn’t have even known Milburn existed if not for the Honors Planning Board organizing this event, which I found out about through the weekly Honors newsletter. Overall, the trip was very well organized and fun, and I would definitely go on another trip with the group.
After spending my fall semester in Paris on a UD study abroad program, I definitely feel that I was able to become part of the city, rather than a tourist, which was a rewarding and fun experience. Thanks to spending three months there, I came away with a better understanding of the people, culture, and day-to-day life of the city. Below, I affirm some Parisian stereotypes, challenge others, and offer more observations from my time in Paris! (Disclaimer: I refer to Parisians specifically instead of French people because I only lived in Paris, but it is possible that these observations could be true for other parts of France as well! All of these views are also based on my own opinions.)
Stereotype: Parisians are arrogant and rude
In my experience, Parisians have been very helpful, respectful, and kind. Even when I traveled to Paris with my family four years ago, while we were walking around on the street with our luggage looking for our Airbnb, a lady stopped to ask if we needed help and gave us directions. That same trip, a man helped my sister carry her suitcase up the metro stairs. During my time studying abroad, I always had positive interactions with people. For example, an older lady in my apartment building always stopped to talk with me, and restaurant servers, museum employees, and retail workers were always polite. Continue reading
Flashback to three years ago when a wide-eyed freshman walked into her first activity night. There were so many different options of clubs or organizations to join and they all made a strong case for recruitment. Update: that freshman was me. One of the organizations I ended up joining was the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). From the very beginning they pitched themselves as, “not a club, but a pre-professional organization,” which attracted me to their Monday night meetings. Since then, I have been able to fully realize all of the benefits this organization has given me.
By the end of my freshman year, I had the opportunity for leadership experience. I applied for the executive board and became the organization’s Public Relations Director. This meant that I was responsible for managing all of our social media accounts and generating strong and consistent content for our blog. This was invaluable experience to gain for the PR field and going into Junior year I was excited to continue to grow. That brings me to this past month (April), when I was able to be our chapter representative at the PRSSA National Assembly.
National Assembly represented the gathering of members from all PRSSA chapters internationally in Portland, Oregon. There we would vote on the next PRSSA national committee that would oversee all chapters for the 2019-2020 year. This gave me the opportunity to go to a new city and literally network from coast-to-coast! The assembly consisted of a variety of different keynote speakers and breakout sessions. We had the opportunity to talk to various chapters about what worked (and what didn’t), while simultaneously having a bigger conversation about diversity. Then, I was able to bring all of these ideas and thoughts back to the University of Delaware.
Beyond the information, I left Portland with new friendships that I would cherish. Because of the nature of the gathering, each chapter usually only sent one student. This meant that we were all in Portland alone… together. This actually made it incredibly easy to make friends. For example, I was in the elevator going to the lobby (to meet up with some other people I had met) and the guy in the elevator with me asked if I had plans with anyone yet and if I wanted to join his group.
I am sure that these relationships will extend beyond this conference both personally and professionally. Personally, we formed bonds that you can only form when traveling and exploring someplace new. Professionally, we are the future of the public relations field, so one day we will all be colleagues or competitors. Personally and professionally, we’ll get to continue building on these relationships and future conferences.
All of these relationships and experiences came from a wide-eyed freshman walking into Gore Hall for an information meeting.
With Winter 2020 Study Abroad interest meetings currently taking place and application deadlines soon approaching, I thought that I would take the chance to share my experience studying abroad on the LING/ENGL Italy program this past winter. As one of thirty-one students who were given this amazing opportunity, I was able to see sights that pictures cannot do justice (even though the thousands of pictures on my Camera Roll would prove otherwise), eat authentic pasta, pizza, and gelato that even my favorite Italian restaurant could not match, and soak it all in with a group of people that I likely would not have met or even passed by on my daily walk through the Green to class.
I had gone on numerous family vacations out of the country to places like Aruba, St. Martin, and Cancun, but traveling to Europe was always on my bucket list. Fortunately, I knew that I wanted to study abroad while in college and looked into Delaware’s winter study abroad program to help me meet this goal. While our almost two-month long winter break can drag and literally make you go stir crazy (I still have flashbacks to freshman year when I went to the mall every day, found random trips to the grocery store entertaining, picked my brother up at school just to get out of the house, and baked enough cookies and brownies to feed an army), winter break offers the perfect opportunity to travel, earn a few credits, and delight in the wonders of a brand new country.
Each program is different, but I found mine to be especially rewarding. Whereas some groups stay with host families and other groups stay on college campuses or in hostels, we bounced around from city to city and hotel to hotel. The constant hustle and bustle kept the trip exciting, with each transfer introducing us to a new culture and new way of living. We started in Sorrento, made our way to Rome, Siena, Verona, and Florence, and then returned back to Rome for our departure. Interlaced within these bigger cities, we took excursions to Pompeii, Amalfi Coast, Capri, Naples, Caserta, Monte Cassino, Orvieto, Venice, San Gimignano, and Pisa. We made our own pizzas, took gondola rides, went on boat and ferry rides, saw a donkey, chilled on the beach, climbed towers, tossed coins, squeezed underground, and watched sunsets; clearly, I could go on for hours about each day’s adventure and everything that I did and saw, but I’ll spare you.
To conclude my sales pitch, I now leave you with some of the hidden gems that I picked up on my time spent last month in bella Italia:
Fifty pounds is a lot less than you would think, and getting rid of sixteen pounds in the airport is in no way possible.
You’ll likely only pay attention to the first two movies that you watch on an eight-hour plane ride.
When you see rocket on a menu, it actually refers to arugula.
Many Italian hotels require you to hand in your key when leaving the hotel and pick it up at the front desk upon returning.
Italian ZARA tops any American ZARA.
Bread and oil are a must before every meal.
Showers in Italy only have half of the shower door, leaving a flood of water on the bathroom floor.
Their version of hot chocolate is literally chocolate soup…not complaining about it though!
Italian gyms are not a thing.
Good pasta needs nothing but tomato sauce.
When scrunched, good leather actually goes back in place.
Pineapple juice will taste like an actual pineapple as opposed to the stuff you get in a can.
Falling asleep on the bus may be the best sleep you’ll ever get.
A gondola ride typically takes less than the advertised thirty minutes.
The Lime and Pink Pepper Piu Gusto chips are the best.
The train makes two stops in Florence – do not freak out if are not able to get off at the first stop.
Look for gelato that is not mounded and does not have a lot of artificial colors – this is the authentic stuff.
Pork is everywhere.
Pompeii has a brothel complete with a stone bed.
To get to the main road in Siena, do not go over a sketchy bridge.
Soccer is life. It’s harder to get into a Roman soccer game than it is to get on a plane home.
Italian Coca-Cola tastes so much better than the American kind.
When taking a picture at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the person taking the picture should move around to get the right angle as opposed to the person posing.
There is indeed McDonald’s in Italy…and they do have Big Macs.
Italian outlets are circular and only contain two prongs, meaning that adaptors are a must.
Mercedes makes the best coach buses.
For guys, adding a scarf to any outfit will instantly make you look more Italian.
There is nothing better than stracciatella gelato.
Pinocchio is everywhere!
Italian dogs are gorgeous and oh-so-well behaved, while I cannot say the same about the pigeons.
Chicken parmesan and spaghetti and meatballs do not exist.
Leggings and sweatpants are not a thing.
Hopefully, what my laundry list of random facts illustrates is that going abroad is an experience that seeing pictures, reading books, and watching videos cannot emulate. To truly take away all that I have and all that is possible, you must immerse yourself in the country and the culture. I can 100% say that anyone looking into studying abroad should take full advantage of Delaware’s winter session and the opportunities that it provides. I am so grateful to have been given the chance to study abroad in Italy, somewhere that I only once dreamed of going. In just thirty days, I was able to gain thirty new friends, eat all that I could, see all that I could, and make memories that will last me a lifetime, but that’s not to say that I haven’t already started planning my return to the beautiful country that is Italy. Andiamo!
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